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Reviews > Shelters > Shelter Accessories > Stakes > Stakes made from Easton Tent Poles > Owner Review by Roger CaffinOwner Review - Lightweight tent pegs/stakes using tent pole tubing Roger Caffin Product Information
Product description These are lightweight tubular tent pegs (or stakes in American terms). They are made from tent pole material: a high tensile thin-wall 7075 T9 aluminium alloy tubing. The peg on the left of the image is made by Easton (the makers of many tent poles). The peg on the right was made by the author using broken Easton tent poles scavenged from several local gear retailers. The figures given above are for the two sorts, in the order shown. The tip on the Easton peg was made by compressing the tubing into a point; the white tip on the home-made peg was machined from hard plastic. The top on the Easton peg is machined aluminium, while the top on the home-made peg is another bit of machined plastic. The Easton tip is obviously lighter than the home-made tip, but the home-made top is lighter than the Easton top. You can find a reference to the pegs on the Easton web site under accessories.
Technical information on design and DIY For a tent peg to hold in the ground it needs enough length to get down into the more compacted soil, and enough width that it won't slide through the soil. It also needs to be strong enough that it would not bend under load - not that a guy rope from a small lightweight tent puts much load on a peg. Wire pegs work in some soils, but I was looking for something wider. Aluminium angle works well, but all the angle I could find was rather heavy, as were the angle pegs I could find. So very thin-wall tent pole tubing seemed like a good idea, and preliminary tests showed it would be light enough to be worth the hassle too. When I was deciding on the length to make the pegs, I was partly influenced by the sort of terrain I was expecting to meet. Some of my pegs are actually shorter than listed here, down to 15 cm (6"). I was using bits of broken poles I had got for free after all. The advantage of the shorter ones is the weight, dropping down to only 7 g (0.25 oz). I also needed a point and a top hat on the tube. I considered compressing the tubing to a point, but that probably required a rather heavy hydraulic press which I don't have. An insert was in order. Plastic is lighter than aluminium, so plastic it was. The plastic points were shaped by eye on a lathe to what seemed suitable. The plastic top was meant to be a bit wider than the pole to hold the guy rope in place, and also to give me something to both push and pull on. At the time I was making my version of the pegs I had not seen the Easton pegs - only later was I given a free sample peg by a friendly retailer who thought I was reinventing the wheel. He did admit though that mine were a lot cheaper, and that people found the Easton pegs a bit too dear. Both plastic tip and plastic top are press-fits into the tubing. This required some experiment. Obviously if the press-fit is slightly loose the plastic bits will fall out. However, making some of them too tight had an unexpected result: the tube split end to end fairly quickly. So either a fine judgement is required, or some superglue. The aluminium Easton cap, by the way, appears to be a force-fit over the outside of the tube. This avoids the splitting problem rather neatly. The Easton cap has a hole through it for a loop of cord if you want. The plastic I used is a hard nylon. This machines well and can be glued. I also tried using a softer plastic such as polyethylene, but this would not stay in the tubing and would not glue in place either. The nylon has worked well.
Field information These pegs are fairly slim and they go into the ground quite easily in most soils. Fortunately, it has turned out that in most cases the lengths I made were quite adequate if driven right in. After all, any length left sticking out is wasted, isn't it? The plastic tops are strong enough that I can apply a bit of force to drive them in - with my foot if necessary. The tops are also big enough to let me pull the pegs back out. These pegs do not hold in sand however, and longer ones were not much better. When camping on sand I resort to large rocks or buried bits of dead wood. Only on very rocky terrain have I had any trouble getting these pegs in, but that was probably because there simply was not enough room between the rocks for the tubing to fit or there were too many rocks in the way. I have not resorted to hammering on them with a rock. I worry that the tubing might split under this sort of treatment, and also I suspect the glue might give away if hammered. In some cases I have resorted to a couple of titanium wire pegs which I also carry; in other cases I have piled up some logs or rocks instead. Sometimes I have wedged one of these pegs behind the log or rock to hold the guy rope: that works quite well. I did try these pegs once in the snow, but they were just too small, even in well-stomped snow. I cannot recommend them for snow conditions.
Reliability It will be seen that the home-made peg changes colour near the tip. That is because the gold anodising which Easton puts on their poles has worn off from use over the years. Mind you, it did take many years to wear this much. Why does the Easton peg look almost pristine? Because it is heavier than my home-made ones, so after a couple of field tests it has mainly stayed at home. In fact, it turns out the pegs I made are the lightest I have been able to find so far. They have seen a lot of use since I made them around 1995. As mentioned above, softer plastics did not work very well, but hard nylon does. A couple of pegs split almost at once because the plastic was jammed in too tight, but once I sorted that out (glue!) they have given no trouble at all. While I have not used the Easton peg very much, it has behaved in very much the same way. If you can't make them, the bought Easton pegs would be good.
Maintenance After pulling the pegs out of the ground I do clean any dirt off them. After each trip I check them for any cracks and clean and dry them. But really, they do not need any maintenance. Likes:
Dislikes:
Would we keep using them?
Addendum 2004 My wife and I spent eight weeks walking along the Pyrenees in 2004, and used some of these tubular page for the tent every night. They worked very well most of the time, although I have to admit that in a few places we had problems. The tent we used required 4 pegs precisely positioned at the corners. Some campsites were so rough that I could not get these tubular pegs into the ground at the corners: there was too much rock. Instead I had to hammer titanium wire pegs in at these corners with a rock. I was always able to find places for the tubular pegs for the guy ropes by canvasing a larger area for each one. So these days I carry some tubular pegs and some titanium pegs. Why don't I carry all titanium pegs instead, since they are about the same weight? Because I found that the tubular pegs do hold much better than thin wire in softer soils. Biographical information
Backpacking Background: I started bushwalking (the Australian term) when I was about 14 yrs old, took up rock climbing and remote exploration walking at University, later on took up ski touring and canyoning. These days I do all my trips with just my wife. Our preferred walking trips in Australia are long ones: about a week in the general Blue Mts (east coast of Australia) and Snowy Mts (alpine) regions, and up to two months long in Europe and the UK. We favour fairly hard technical trips in remote country and prefer to travel fast and light. Our ski touring trips are usually 5-7 days long as well, with full packs and tents. In between we still do fairly long day trips: it's a form of relaxation. Having discovered that 20 kg (44 lb) packs are no longer fun, we have become believers in ultra-lightweight walking. Typically we carry an ultra-lightweight tent (we need full insect proofing here), Therm-a-rest mattresses (for comfort), lightweight sleeping bags, lightweight packs, a lightweight butane/propane stove, light climbing rope (frequently used) and very light parkas. I would carry about 12-14 kg (26-31 lb) total for a week, my wife would carry a bit less (more when skiing of course). I am also the maintainer of the Australian aus.bushwalking FAQ web site www.bushwalking.org.au/FAQ/. Read more reviews of Home Made gear Read more gear reviews by Roger Caffin Reviews > Shelters > Shelter Accessories > Stakes > Stakes made from Easton Tent Poles > Owner Review by Roger Caffin | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||